SUMMARY & SUGGESTIONS
PURPOSES OF PRACTICUM
Practicum is one of the important parts in the teaching profession. Through this, student teachers were able to experience the actual scenario before they will be deployed to a more challenging setting. During this experience, student teachers can observe, substitute, and have demonstrations with the help of their cooperating teachers. As a future teacher, this project will made me feel more globally competent and equipped as I go on to my journey. In my opinion, the very purpose of this project is to develop and help us, future teachersto find the windows of our chosen profession.
PROCEDURES OF PRACTICUM
A. The practicum starts by an orientation together with the members of practicum school and receiving school. During this setting, schedules, lessons, curriculum guides, and school routines were introduced;
B. On the first week, we will be assigned to each grade level and were introduced to our cooperating teachers and students. We also spend most of this week observing and familiarizing the learning environment of our grade assignment;
C. On the second week, we are now allowed to assist the teachers during classes. On this procedure, the student teacher will be able to build a relationship with his/her students before the demonstration;
D. On the third week, student teachers will be given lessons to be discussed and have their evaluated demonstrations; and
E. To conclude the practicum, the practicum school will have an evaluation meeting regarding the performance of the student teachers.
OUTCOMES OF PRACTICUM
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Before this internship starts, I was really hesitant to accept the program since I thought I am not competent enough to be sent outside the country and represent the school. The University that I am enrolled in, being the National Center for Teacher Education, there’s a lot of pressure and expectations coming from my teachers and to the people who will be part of this journey. But because of the encouragement of everyone, I was able to take the challenge, and actually, I did.
With the help of this program, I was able to appreciate and love more the profession I took. I gained confidence and the flame of service within me shined brighter for me to do better. I also realized that despite the differences in beliefs and perspectives, we can still learn from each other. I was able to improve my English skills and manifest and improve all the pedagogical methods and strategies I learned for the past three years. I also learn something from my cooperating teachers which will be very helpful for me when I soon enter the field.
CHALLENGES OF PRACTICUM
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The major challenge I encountered in this practicum is classroom management. Being in an international school, it is expected that students will be diverse, not just in their own learning styles and capacity but also in their beliefs, culture, traditions, and religions. Thus, it is inevitable to have students who will disagree and be curious about some of your statements and teaching perspectives.
II-Pascal is composed of 21 pupils. Each of the pupils has distinct characteristics from each other. They are very hyper and have a very short attention span. Because of this, It challenged me to lay my A cards in lesson planning. I carefully manage all the materials and activity I will do to my lessons with consideration of my observation during the first week.
I always make sure that the activity and application part of my lesson will have the huge number of time because, in this way, students will have an interactive first-hand experience of the lesson which is based from John Dewey’s “Learning by Doing” Theory. It states that learnings should be relevant and practical, not just passive and theoretical. In this way, students will have longer retention of the lesson. I make use of game shows, videos, and group activities so that they will find it fun and at the same time educational.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
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This project is really helpful for future 21st-century teachers. With the help of this program, student teachers will gain global experiences and perspectives about their chosen endeavor -- EDUCATION.
Personally, I realized various pedagogical innovations, structures, and development which helps me step up the game and be challenged to go out of my comfort zone and be a globally competent teacher.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE IMPROVEMENT
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PRACTICUM SCHOOL
I observed that teachers used the traditional way of teaching. I suggest making use of other instructional materials or other methods and strategies of teaching like having games, group activities, and simulations. With these methods, students will be more attentive to the lesson and will look forward to their teaching time.
I also like to suggest Spelling as a lesson or maybe integrate it In their English class. I observed that students learn four languages (English, Bahasa, Javanese, and Mandarin), and I understand that there is confusion happening on how they spell some words because it is somewhat similar with the other languages. It may just be a small concern but it can help them step by step. From words to sentence to paragraphs and furthermore.
SEAMEO
This program is really outstanding but it’ll be more challenging to student teachers if it’s longer than a month. It may cost us much but ideally speaking, it can never pay the learning and experience we will have. KUDOS!